This invention relates generally to wall preparation and treatment equipment and more particularly concerns a disposable mask for shielding a wall box and its contents while a wall is being plastered, primed, painted or the like. In the disclosure that follows, the invention will be discussed in relation to the painting process, but it is also applicable to other wall preparation and treatment processes.
In preparing a wall for plastering, priming or painting, when switches, receptacles, phone jacks or other contents have already been mounted in their respective wall boxes, it is common practice to either cover the open box with protective tape or to cover the box with its decorative plate and to then apply protective tape to the cover. Accurate taping is a tedious, time-consuming task.
Many types of shields have been designed for use in lieu of tape to cover the boxes or decorative plates. Those shields that cover the plates do not truly solve the problem. It is impossible to completely cover the plate without also covering a thin perimeter on the wall around the plate, leaving this portion of the wall unpainted. On the other hand, if the plate is not covered to its extremities, paint will be applied to the plate extremities. Those shields that cover the open box and its contents suffer from a variety of shortcomings. Some have relatively complex three-dimensional shapes and are, therefore, clumsy, unstackable and generally too expensive to be disposable. They are mounted either by use of the screws intended to secure the decorative plate to the box or by use of rearwardly protruding mechanisms such as prongs to be inserted into the slots in a receptacle or leaf-spring-like tabs that engage against the inner walls of the box. Use of the screws is, of course, further time consuming and also sometimes results in loss of the screws before the decorative plate is applied. The complex mounting mechanisms make the shields even more unnecessarily expensive and less disposable. Since all of these shields are mounted by connection to the box or to its contents, the connection points are considerably inward of the outer perimeter of the shield. Consequently, the perimeter of the shield is not always held in abutment with the wall, especially if the wall is not perfectly planar, and paint can seep between the shield and the wall. If the paint fully dries before the shield is removed, added effort may be required to assure that paint is not stripped from areas intended to be painted during removal of the shield.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a wall box painting mask which shields an open wall box and its contents during wall painting. Another object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which connects proximate its outer perimeter to the wall surrounding its wall box. A further object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which has an outer perimeter which surrounds the outer perimeter of the wall box but lies within the anticipated outer perimeter of the wall box decorative cover. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which is disposable. It is also an object of this invention to provide a wall box painting mask which is relatively thin and pliable. Still another object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which is contoured to be stackable in a pad of many identical masks. An additional object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which is secured to the wall by use of adhesive on the rear outer perimeter of the mask. Another object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which is held in a stacked pad relationship by the adhesive which will secure each pad to the wall. A further object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which does not connect directly to the wall box or its contents. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which connects directly to the wall surrounding the wall box. It is also an object of this invention to provide a wall box painting mask which requires no tools for attachment. Still another object of this invention is to provide a wall box painting mask which requires no separate components for attachment.